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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Come on you guys. Unless the block has ben treated to a more modern pressurized timing chain tensioner…what you are looking at is the remains of the large flat O ring that serves as the timing chain tensioner on 100’s. Bet the cam timing is off a bit too!</p><p class=MsoNormal>Perry</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sent from <a href="https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986">Mail</a> for Windows 10</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:michael.oritt@gmail.com">Michael Oritt</a><br><b>Sent: </b>Sunday, September 24, 2017 6:04 PM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:healeys@autox.team.net">Austin Healey</a>; <a href="mailto:mrspitfire1500@yahoo.com">Michael Clifford JR</a><br><b>Subject: </b>[Healeys] (no subject)</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:#FAFAFA'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#333333'>There has been a slow, gradual decline in my engine's oil pressure for a while now--60 to 65 psi on start-up from cold dropping at running temperatures to 30-35 psi at 3K rpm's and 10 psi or less at fast idle. Yesterday I took the car for a long ride and after a while at 65-70 mph the oil pressure actually dropped below 30 psi, so it's now officially below the "10 psi/1K rpm's" threshold. <br><br>The engine has about 60K on it since complete rebuild so this morning I decided to bite the bullet and drop the sump with the hope that I will find nothing worse than a worn oil pump and/or main or rod bearings, either of which I can repair/replace in time for some fall driving. <br><br>I first removed the spin-on oil filter and upon cutting it apart noticed a bit of black plastic debris--irregularly shaped pieces, almost gravel-like perhaps 1/16" to 1/8" in dimension on one end of the cartridge. The filter medium itself was fairly clean though I did notice a bit more shiny bearing-like material than I would have liked to have seen.<br><br>While draining the pan I heard a clunk or two from some solids going through the drain hole and landing in a catch pan and on examination I found a couple of larger pieces of the same kind of stuff--definitely some black plastic material, not particularly hard as it would give when bitten. <br><br>The big surprise was what I found when I removed the pan--a lot more of the same small stuff and four segments of a black plastic piece. In the attached thumbnail you'll see that they form a semi-circle about 5" in diameter and notice on the two pieces in the 9 o'clock position that there appears to have been some gear-like teeth molded in. The small debris is inside the semi-circle.<br><br>I'm going to remove the oil pump tomorrow but wonder if anyone has an idea as to what this stuff could be?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>